Money
Government told to re-table three subsidiary bills fast
The House Finance Committee instructed the government on Tuesday to re-table three subsidiary bills—Financial Bill, Bill to Raise Domestic Debt and Debt and Guarantee Bill—in Parliament without delay.The House Finance Committee instructed the government on Tuesday to re-table three subsidiary bills—Financial Bill, Bill to Raise Domestic Debt and Debt and Guarantee Bill—in Parliament without delay.
Former finance minister Bishnu Poudel had originally tabled these three bills in Parliament in early July, but they were rejected by a majority after the CPN (Maoist Centre) withdrew its support to the KP Oli-led government. “If these bills that support the budget’s implementation are not approved by Parliament, it will affect revenue collection and infrastructure development. So this committee directs the government to present the bills in Parliament for its approval,” said Finance Committee Chairman Prakash Jwala, announcing the committee’s verdict. “There shouldn’t be further politics on these bills.”
Speaking at the Finance Committee’s meeting on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minster Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the Periodic Tax Collection Act allows the government to raise taxes for a period of six months from the day the Financial Bill is published in the gazette. “Therefore, our fiscal system is not in crisis as portrayed by some politicians,” said Mahara. “However, we don’t want to take much time before presenting these bills in Parliament.”
Earlier, Mahara said the bills had been rejected because of political reasons, referring to the then prevailing political tension between the CPN (Maoist Centre) and the CPN-UML after the former withdrew its support to the UML-led administration. “Currently, there is some sort of political stability; and we are ready to table the bills in Parliament for its approval. But bills that have been rejected cannot be tabled again during the same session of Parlia-ment because of provisions laid down in the Regulation of Parliam-ent. So we are planning to build consensus to suspend the Regulation before presenting the bills.”
No changes will be made to the figures or content of the Financial Bill, Mahara said. However, he indicated that some changes may be made to the other two bills.
The Bill to Raise Domestic Debt, as prepared by the previous government, contains a proposal to raise Rs111 billion in credit from domestic sources. The finance minister has hinted that the figure may be revised downward before the bill is presented in Parliament. “Likewise, we are considering making slight changes to the Debt and Guarantee Bill in a way that will not affect the Appropriation Act, which has been endorsed by Parliament.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minster Krishna Bahadur Mahara said his ministry had not been making preparations to roll out a supplementary budget. “The first condition for the introduction of a supplementary budget is political consensus. So, we will first have political discussions before making any decision,” he said.